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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

If you gave your DD a very unusual name

183 replies

ZebraZeebra · 21/11/2014 20:00

Care to share? Grin

And also, did you tell people beforehand or is it best to just announce once they're here?

OP posts:
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moxon · 22/11/2014 10:11

Talisker is fab!

Schoolaroundthecorner · 22/11/2014 10:03

Can also be pronounced fin-oh-la, depending on whereabouts you are from.

Schoolaroundthecorner · 22/11/2014 10:02

Fionnuala pronounced like fin-ooola, lovely irish name although its more common to see Nuala as a name now.

grumpyoldgitagain · 22/11/2014 09:36

First names would definitely out me

Middle names are very unusual but safe as no one outside family knows them

First dd has Alabama (after character in true romance)

Second dd has Malika which is an African name

TeWiSavesTheDay · 22/11/2014 09:27

DD2s name is unusual in the UK.

I have had the odd Hmm face from elderly folks, but most people love it and it's phonetic so very easy to spell once you've been told the first time.

TobyLerone · 22/11/2014 09:17

I really love Mary. It would have been on our list, but our surname makes it too ordinary.

MehsMum · 22/11/2014 08:57

I love the name Mary. There was one at the DCs' primary school.

My name was very unusual when I was a child; it was the sort of name great-grandmothers had. Then to my intense and continuing chagrin it became hugely popular.

I've only ever met one child called exactly the same as any of my DC. I said to her mother, 'Oh, that's lovely! My daughter's called that!' And the mother said, 'I know. I checked her into summer club when I was pregnant, and thought, that's gorgeous, I like that, and she's a lovely little girl. So I pinched it. Hope you don't mind.'
Mind? I was thrilled, as was DD.

AnythingNotEverything · 22/11/2014 07:52

No way. It's currently a forgotten name. I don't want it to become super popular!

AmericasTorturedBrow · 22/11/2014 07:43

If DD had been a boy we would have named her Talisker

Yes, after the single malt. Nearly called her Autumn but balked at the eleventh hour

Original poster
ZebraZeebra · 22/11/2014 07:37

This is a fab thread, thanks so much for everyone's input!! Some really really lovely names - some I know of well and some I've never heard of. But all so beautiful!

Bang your DDs names are so grand, I love them! Particularly Cordelia.

whozit how do you pronounce Fionnuala?

Fast pm me please!!

Unfortunately my uncle is Darryl in the exact same spelling. But Darryl Hannah was always very cool.

OP posts:
moxon · 22/11/2014 07:12

Also, I want anything to name change and spill!!! Grin

moxon · 22/11/2014 07:11

Cordelia and Octavia are fab. Book-names (a.o.), and I'd always support a book-name for giving to your child. I also really liked the pp's dd's nm Mem - it is a very real-sounding, unpretentious but lovely name to carry through life with you. Smile

marymouse · 22/11/2014 02:34

I have a Mary, which always gets this Shock
So now we call her something different

ProveMeWrong · 22/11/2014 01:37

Or Daryl? That's down at zero but I think these girly names ending in "a" might become old hat soon and you'd remember a Daryl.

unclerory · 22/11/2014 01:36

The DC have names that are very unusual here (DD was the only one born the year she was born) but not at home. So they go between having to explain pronounciation and (especially) spelling to meeting LOTS of people with the same names as them when we are visiting my family.

Make sure you really love the name because yo do get a lot of Hmm faces and rather unsubtle negative comments (SIL said she 'struggled' with DD's name, lots of people say 'oh is that from your home?').

whozit · 22/11/2014 01:33

Fionnuala... Most people struggle to say it at first but they catch on pretty quick. I didn't announce it before birth but wouldn't have done that even of we were calling her kate!

ProveMeWrong · 22/11/2014 01:29

I have always loved Gaia because Latin matrimony vows used to use this name as a kind of "any woman" name. Ubi tu gaius, Ibi ego Gaia. Very evocative. And also means earth Goddess.

Also heard an Athena in the park but not in UK . It was pronounced "a-tayn-a here which I thought was nice.

I have an unusual name that has only become popular since a film when I was about 16. Very annoying now as they are becoming so common! Love having an unusual name.

supersop60 · 22/11/2014 01:27

My daughter's name is Joanna - not unusual at all, but people have trouble with it. MIL still calls her Joanne, and teachers at school have said JoHanna, Joanny, Jonah. I don't get it.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 22/11/2014 01:13

Ohhhh I'm bloody cross now there were 19 last year 19 that is unacceptable give it 5 years and it will have done a bloody ruby!

Have a play with this

names.darkgreener.com/#

NeedsAsockamnesty · 22/11/2014 01:06

My DD's had very unusual names for their time unfortunately a couple of them ended up as popular names hopefully the youngests won't.

The name was ripped to shreds on here but in RL we have never has a bad reaction not even 'the look'. I'm pretty sure there have never been more than about 15 named each year for decades.

Any name no matter if its Olivia or zooella should never be announced before its sealed because rude people will be rude about it in advance

StarOnTheTree · 22/11/2014 00:47

DD3 is Liberty which is unusual where I live. She's nearly 8 and we've never met another one.

AnneEyhtMeyer · 22/11/2014 00:45

As soon as I read Redcliffe I knew it would have a St Mary Redcliffe connection!

I like Afton, but have only ever heard it as a character in Dallas, so maybe it is an American name?

I'm surprised that Meredith (lovely name) is considered unusual, though.

Hakluyt · 22/11/2014 00:22

I gave my dd a very unusual name 18 years age. Many raised eyebrows.

The name? Grace!

BangBangBangityBang · 22/11/2014 00:20

My DDs are Octavia Camille and Lorelai Cordelia.

We didn't choose their names until they were 2-3 weeks old and I didn't think they were that unusual but some people were quite rude when we announced.

Sidge · 21/11/2014 23:03

I wanted to call DD3 Octavia but wasn't allowed Sad